Staffers Contributed 'Creativity Selfies' to Initiative

By Jeremy Barr.Published on Jan 15, 2016

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Conde Nast didn't have to go too far find talent for a new advertising campaign about creativity, called "Create. Connect. Conde Nast."

Conde Nast kicked off the initiative with a series of short videos on social media channels in which employees from across the company's suite of media properties, from Conde Nast Traveller to Vogue, along with a few celebrities -- talk on camera about what creativity means to them.

Even the folks at Pitchfork, the alternative music magazine acquired by Conde Nast in October, pitched in. "They gave us two really good [videos]," CMO Edward Menicheschi told Ad Age.

The company has so far published three representative, 60-second supercuts, along with a 15-second video for each media brand. Thirty-seven "influencers" including Justin Bieber, Ms. Jenner, and Ms. Witherspoon agreed to promote the Condé Nast videos on their social media channels, using the hashtag #CreativityIs.

After pushing the videos to Conde Nast's audience of 120 million on social media, not to mention the healthy reach of the celebrities tapped to help out, the company is running an out-of-home advertising campaign.

Displays tied to the campaign will be seen in Grand Central Terminal and select Subway stops, along with trade publications.

The idea for the project originated with CEO Bob Sauerberg.

"Bob Sauerberg came to me last summer, and he said, 'I want you and a team of creatives to work on telling the story of who Conde Nast is today," Mr. Menicheschi said. "And that was really the starting point of the whole thing."

From there, the initiative was headed up by Mr. Menicheschi, artistic director Anna Wintour, and corporate creative director Raul Martinez, working in concert with in-house branded content studio 23 Stories.